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energizing in and through them, our author is compelled to 
face the question of the origin of life. He is fully aware of 
the difficulty of the problem, and admits that it is no solution 
of it to say, that its absence may be accounted for in the lower 
strata, by the supposition that causes may have been in ex- 
istence, which have destroyed all traces of it. “ There was a 
time,” says he, “ when the temperature of the earth was so 
high, that living organisms could not exist on it. There was 
once no organic life on the earth : at a later period there was : 
it must consequently have had a beginning, and the question 
is how ? ” 
55. Yes, truly; that is the question. Kant judged that it 
might well be said, “ Give me matter, and I will explain the 
origin of the world ; but not, Give me matter, and I will explain 
the origin of a caterpillar.” Let it not be forgotten also that 
Kant bowed in reverence before the moral nature of man, and 
its authoritative affirmation of the obligation of the moral law. 
These mighty gulfs, however, the philosophy of Atheism and 
Pantheism has attempted to bridge over. “ Here,” says 
Strauss, “ faith intervenes with its miracle.” This philosophy 
postulates an operation no less miraculous, viz., the action of 
blind forces under the direction of blind laws, continued 
throughout an eternity of time. 
56. I need hardly say, that our author resolves all difficulties 
by boldly assuming the truth of the theory of spontaneous 
generation. Here let it be observed, that Atheism is obliged 
to use a word, which implies the presence of will. He admits 
the uncertainty of previous experiments; but nothing daunted, 
he affirms, “ If the question of spontaneous generation could 
not be proved in regard to our present terrestrial period, this 
would establish nothing with respect to a primeval period under 
totally different conditions. The existence of the crudest form 
of life has however never been actually demonstrated. Life too, 
after all, is nothing but a form of motion.” 
57. On questions of pure physics I shall not enter. But it 
belongs to the present inquiry to point out the conditions of 
the problem which this philosophy has to solve; and not to 
allow it to substitute an unreal for the true issue. That issue 
is not the one here stated. Before it can advance one step, 
proof positive of the truth of the theory of spontaneous genera- 
tion must be given. It is no solution of the problem, to take 
refuge in the assumed possibility, that it may have taken place 
under widely different conditions during the uncertain past. 
To do so is cunningly to assume the question at issue. Profes- 
sor Huxley tells us that proof of the theory of spontaneous 
generation has yet to be given. 
